At this point we need to ask why Moses’ ministry of glory became a ministry of condemnation and death. In itself Moses’ ministry was not a ministry of condemnation and death. It became such a ministry because the people were in darkness and because their hearts were hardened. The book of Exodus says at least thirteen times that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, or that Pharaoh hardened his heart. When the children of Israel were at the foot of the mountain of God, their hearts were the same as the heart of Pharaoh. This means that the hearts of the people had become hard.
The kind of person you are is determined by the kind of heart you have. If you have an evil heart, you are an evil person. But if you have a good heart, you are a good person. Likewise, if your heart if full of hate, you will be a hateful person. But if your heart is full of love, you will be a loving person. When they were at Mount Sinai to receive the law, the children of Israel had a hardened heart. As a result, the ministry of glory became for them a ministry of condemnation and death. It definitely was not God’s intention to condemn the people or to bring them into death. But because the people were hard and blind in their heart, like Pharaoh in Egypt, the ministry of glory became a ministry of condemnation and even of death.
The principle is the same in reading the Bible. Do not think that it is impossible for the Bible to condemn you or kill you. If your heart is hard as you read the Bible, the Bible will become to you a book of condemnation and death. Do not hold the superstitious concept that people always receive blessing in reading the Bible. This simply is not true. Whether the Bible is a ministry of life or of death, of righteousness or of condemnation, depends on our heart. If our heart is soft, the Bible will be a blessing. But if our heart is hard, the Bible will be a book of condemnation and death, even as the ministry of Moses became a ministry of condemnation and death to the children of Israel.
In the foregoing message we pointed out the aspect of the law as killing letters. In this message we are concerned with the matter of the veil over the glory of the ministry of condemnation and death. Concerning the “night” aspect of the law, the two main things are the killing and the veiling. The letters kill, and the veil covers. The law was given, but there was a veil over it. In like manner, in our experience there may also be a veil over the Bible.
When Moses came down from the mountain, he did not know that the skin of his face shone. It was the people who saw that “the skin of Moses’ face shone.” Eventually, Moses himself came to realize this. We are told that he later put a veil on his face. However, the strange thing is that Moses did not put this veil on until after he had finished speaking with the people (v. 33, lit.). Before he came down from the mountain to speak with the people, Moses did not have a veil on. He did not even know that his face shone. Only after he had spoken to the people did he put a veil on his face. Verse 34 says, “But when Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out” (lit.). Then we read that when Moses spoke to the children of Israel, he “put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him” (v. 35). Thus, when Moses spoke with the people, he put on the veil. But when he spoke with God, he removed it.
Moses’ face shone because of God’s speaking with him (v. 29, lit.). The more God talked to Moses, the more his face shone. Moses did not wear a veil when he spoke to the Lord, but he did wear one when he spoke to the people. The people might have been displeased and even insulted by this. They might have said to Moses, “When you speak with God, you don’t wear a veil. Why must you put on a veil when you talk to us?” The answer to this question is that Moses covered his face with a veil because after speaking to the people, he realized that their hearts were hard. In Paul’s interpretation and exposition of Exodus 34 in 2 Corinthians 3, we realize that the veil was simply the hardened heart of the children of Israel. This is the reason Paul says that when the heart turns to the Lord, the veil will be taken away (v. 16). This is also the reason Exodus 34 says the veil was on Moses’ face, whereas 2 Corinthians 3:15 says that the veil is on the heart of the people. The veil was not actually the fabric used to cover Moses’ face. It was the hardened heart of the people, a heart which had been turned away from the Lord.
When our heart is turned toward the Lord, there is no veil. But if our heart is turned away from Him, such a heart becomes a veil which keeps us from beholding the face of the Lord. Hence, the heart turned away from the Lord is the veil.
Moses put a veil on his face as a sign to the people. After talking with them, Moses realized that they were stiff-necked and that their hearts were hardened. They could not understand God’s desire. This was the reason Moses put a veil on his face. Because the hearts of the children of Israel had become hardened, Moses’ ministry of glory became a ministry of condemnation and death. However, if the hearts of the people had been soft and had been turned to the Lord, Moses’ ministry would not have been a ministry of condemnation and death. But because the people were hard of heart, they were condemned and even killed by the ministry of Moses. This condemnation and death was passed to their descendants, including the Pharisees and the Judaizers. All were condemned and slain by Moses’ ministry, even though it was a ministry of glory.
The principle is the same in the New Testament. We have pointed out that the ministry in the New Testament, a ministry of righteousness and of the Spirit, is more glorious than the ministry of Moses. But if our heart is hard and turned away from the Lord, in our experience even the glorious ministry of the New Testament will become a ministry of condemnation and death to us.
According to John 12:48, the Lord Jesus told the religionists, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him: the word which I spoke, that will judge him in the last day.” This indicates that those who do not believe in Christ will be judged and condemned by His words. Those who perish in the future will be condemned not by the law, but by the gospel. Today the gospel is a word of righteousness, Spirit, and life. But those who harden their hearts will be condemned and sentenced to death by this very gospel. For them, the glorious ministry of the New Testament will become a ministry of condemnation and death.